


thousands upon thousands made an ocean

by oh_la_fraise



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, au: this world inverted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-16 05:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8089399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_la_fraise/pseuds/oh_la_fraise
Summary: “Your joints never creak,” Alec grouses.  His hair is more salt than pepper now.  “It’s not fair.”“No, it’s not,” Magnus replies.   This World Inverted Magnus and Alec, through the years.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A quick fic based on a shower thought I had where Magnus never tells Alec about his mortality in the World Inverted universe. Title is from Transatlanticism by Death Cab.

I.

“Your joints never creak,” Alec grouses.His hair is more salt than pepper now.“It’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not,” Magnus replies. 

II. 

Rediscovering his magic makes Magnus a little punch drunk in every part of his life.He goes out and buys Church a bed shaped like a throne; he paints his walls a rich velvet red.He feels positively giddy.So when The Boy from the Party, the one with too much gel in his hair and the confidence of youth, tracks him down and asks him on a date, he says yes.After all, what’s one date?

When he pushes into Magnus that night, muttering _hermoso, muy hermoso,_ into his ear, Magnus feels more alive than he has in centuries. 

III. 

Sometimes, when Alec is fast asleep, Magnus lets the glamor fade.He loses the wrinkles, the laugh lines, the gnarled hands and the thinning hair, until he looks all of twenty nine again.He watches Alec sleep, listens to the quiet shuffle of the night nurses in the hall.He imagines Alec waking up and looking at him, and saying “oh, you too?” and Alec shifting in his skin until he’s a young man again, until they’re young men again together.

Alec sleeps on, unaware.

IV. 

They have their bachelor parties in the same hotel.Their friends keep them from seeing each other, citing bad luck, and commandeer their phones to keep them from texting.Magnus feels every second he spends away from Alec like a knife to the chest.

Jace, who has been alternating between parties based on who currently has the best booze, drops his head before jolting up, blinking.He stares at Magnus.“Whoa, I forgot how less sparkly you are in this world.”

Something cold crawls up Magnus’s spine.“I think you’ve had enough to drink for tonight.”

“Naw, man, it’s me.”He leans in closer.“ _Shadowhunter_ me.”

“Why?”  


He grins.It’s sharper than normal.“Meliorn figured out how to peek into this world, and make the transitions easier,” he says, as if Magnus has any idea who Meliorn is.“Because he totally loves me, he gave me a heads up it was Alec’s bachelor party.So I could get it right this time.”

Magnus blinks.By the time he’s gathered his thoughts, Jace is already heading off in the direction of Alec’s party. 

Magnus has another shot of tequila and mentally rehearses his vows.

V.

Raf sighs.Even though he’s not biologically related to either of them, he looks so much like Alec; his dark hair is going white in the same way Alec’s did. 

Magnus’s child has more grey hair than Magnus. 

“I’m sorry about all the grief Max and I gave you and Papa when we were kids.Nina’s going to drive me into an early grave if she keeps breaking curfew.”

He forces a grin onto his face.“That’s the perks of being old; you get karma.”

VI.

“I forgot how happy he is, with you,” Jace the Shadowhunter says as they watch Alec dance with Nina.She barely reaches Alec’s knees.Jace’s whole body seems to sag in on itself.“It’s good to see him happy again.”

VII.

Jace the Shadowhunter never comes back. 

VIII.

Sometimes, when Alec is fast asleep, Magnus pushes his magic into Alec’s bones and hopes it will provide a little relief.

IX. 

After Alec has contorted his tall body onto one knee, after he’s put his ring on Magnus’s finger, after they’ve texted all their friends and gotten lukewarm congratulations from Alec’s parents, Magnus sneaks into the bathroom and has a quiet panic attack.He looks at the ring on his finger, a prelude to _until death do us part,_ and heaves into the toilet. 

“You okay?”Alec asks when he emerges.

_I’m going to watch you and our children die one day._

“Just fine.” 

X. 

Alec plans their wedding.It’s beautiful and picture perfect.

During the first dance, Magnus hooks his chin over Alec’s shoulder, and wishes he could freeze time. 

XI.

“Dad, come lie down,” Max says, voice thick with tears as he tugs Magnus away from Ale— _the body._ Max takes him away, forces him into a spare bed, tucks him in like Magnus is a little child.

Later, he hears Raf and his wife Gabriella talking in the kitchen.“Soulmates,” Gabriella mutters.“I’m sorry, mi cariño, but when you’ve been together that long, your father probably isn’t far behind.”

XII.

“Do you believe in magic?”Magnus asks on their second date.

Alec snorts.“Not at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Join me on Tumblr! ](http://ohlafraise.tumblr.com/)


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